Audio peak limiting has been a fundamental part of the production, transmission and reproduction of audio for over 50 years. As FIG. 1 shows, in its most basic form an audio peak limiter provides an input to output signal level characteristic such that the output voltage is equal to the input voltage up to the peak-limiting threshold. For input audio signals with amplitude above the threshold, the output audio-signal level is constrained (limited) so as not to exceed the threshold. As with other dynamic gain control systems for audio, the method of modifying the gain has a significant impact on the nature and audibility of artifacts introduced into the output audio signal.
In one of its earliest uses, audio peak limiting controlled audio-signal amplitudes to prevent over-modulation during radio broadcasts. Today, audio peak limiting still routinely prevents over-modulation in radio and television broadcasts.
Audio peak limiting has also been an important part of phonograph-record mastering. Phonograph mastering involves a lathe cutting grooves into a phonograph-record master disc that represent the audio waveform. In this case, limiting constrains the amplitude of the audio and, therefore, the width and depth of grooves of the phonograph record so that they fit within the physical limitations of the phonograph medium.
With the advent of digital audio technology, control of the audio amplitude using peak limiting continues to be important during both recording and reproduction. During digital audio recording, which converts analog to digital, if the input analog audio signal exceeds the input signal level corresponding to the maximum digital audio sample that can be represented by the digital system (0 dBFS), the resulting recorded digital representation of the audio will be clipped. This occurs because analog audio signal levels above 0 dBFS can be at most represented by 0 dBFS. Similarly, if multiple digital audio signals are mixed in the digital domain without scaling, during playback it is possible for the sum of the audio data to exceed 0 dBFS, the maximum digital signal that can be represented during the digital-to-analog conversion. The result is a clipped output analog waveform.
A typical example of clipping, representative of both digital recording and reproduction is shown in FIG. 2. Mixing of multiple digital audio signals has become very common with the advent of modern multi-channel audio formats (such as Dolby Digital 5.1 and MLP) and reproduction systems that downmix multi-channel material for playback on stereo- or mono-compatible systems.
Recently, in mastering digital audio material (i.e., CD and DVD audio), peak limiting algorithms are standard in order to allow the level (and therefore apparent loudness) of the audio to increase without exceeding a user-defined peak level (for example −0.1 dBFS or 0 dBFS). This practice has become increasingly prevalent as the desire to produce louder and louder representations of audio has grown.
Audio peak limiting can be performed either on the complete, full-bandwidth signal or in a multi-band approach which performs individual peak limiting operations on different and distinct audio frequency bands. For multi-band peak limiting, the individually processed frequency bands are summed following peak limiting to re-create a composite signal.
In general, wide-band peak limiting is used when a minimal alteration of the audio spectrum and timbre is preferred, such as with music mastering. Multi-band limiting is often used to achieve significant amounts of peak limiting, but with the potential of significantly altering the spectral characteristics and perceived timbre of the audio. Uses of multi-band limiting include FM radio transmission where a station wishes to have a very loud perceived sound level as well as have a unique “sound”—dictated by the settings of the multi-band limiter.
Peak limiting in music mastering typically requires gain reductions between 0 and approximately 20 dB. Downmixing five (5) channel surround audio signals to two (2) channel stereo signals, as occurs in DVD players and home-theater receivers, requires up to 9 dB of gain reduction—where, for example, the stereo left channel is a sum of the left, left surround and −3 dB reduced center channel for the 5-channel surround signal.
Fairly inaudible peak limiting can typically be achieved for gain reductions in the range of 0 to 12 dB, and some commercial products exist that perform well in this range. Limiting requiring gain reductions larger than approximately 12 dB can become quite audible, and in this discussion gain reduction larger than approximately 12 dB is considered large or significant.